gearsofwarfandomcom-20200222-history
Esther Bakos
Doctor Esther Bakos was the Head of Biochemical Research on Azura and headed the research into finding a cure to Lambency alongside Professor Adam Fenix. She had a fierce rivalry with Adam, but participated in a conspiracy with him and Dr. Nevil Estrom to experiment with Lambency on Adam instead of unwilling human test subjects. Bakos was likely killed by the Locust when they captured Azura. Biography Meeting With Prescott In Brume of 10 A.E., Bakos met Chairman Richard Prescott in his office during one of his rare visits to Azura to discuss Lambency, which the Coalition of Ordered Governments had recently discovered from Dr. Adam and Dr. Elain Fenix's records. Bakos asked permission to share a top secret teratogenicity study conducted by Dr. Niles Samson with Adam, to which Prescott gave his permission. Bakos then questioned if the COG knew what had happened to the subjects from the New Hope Research Facility that had been moved from the facility years ago, believing that they might be connected to Lambency in some way and could provide crucial data. Prescott informed her that the COG had searched for years but never located them, and refused her request that the COG recover some Sires from the facility. Bakos argued that the two projects were clearly linked, and that Adam had proved Lambency was caused by expose to Imulsion, just like the Sires. Prescott wondered if all Imulsion was going to come to "life" and infect everything on the planet, but Bakos informed him that they did not know enough about the organism yet to determine that. She did think that there was clear evidence it could jump between species barriers, and that they needed a replacement subject if they could not have the Sires. Prescott then asked if Lambency could be used as a survival advantage against the Locust, but Bakos was horrified at the idea and noted how Lambent creatures had a tendency to explode and would not be an advantage. She once again asked for some kind of living subject to experiment on, and Prescott claimed he might be able to get a human subject. Bakos was uneasy with that option and wondered who would volunteer for that, but Prescott corrected her and would draw from the population of the Jacinto Maximum Security Prison for subjects. Bakos considered that for a few moments, and then told Prescott that he would have to ask Adam about it before quickly leaving his office.Gears of War: The Slab pg 139-142 Meeting With Adam In late Gale of the next year, prisoner William Alva was shipped from the Slab to be experimented on by Bakos and her team. Bakos was told by Dr. Rex Jerome that Adam had become upset upon learning of the situation and had gone to his office. Bakos went to visit him and explained that they needed to do tests on humans as soon as possible to learn how the Lambent organism evolved and jumped species barriers. Adam retorted that it was unethical to experiment on humans, but Bakos countered that Alva had raped and killed three children and did not deserve their sympathy. She pointed out that he might not even be harmed by the tests, and that he would be repaying his debt to society. When Adam insisted that it was simply not ethical, Bakos became annoyed and told him that if they continued to abide by ethics, the whole world would die. Adam told her that they would not use Alva, and find another option, but Bakos asked if he was suddenly going to learn molecular biology to find a way to do so. She was shocked when he suddenly declared that he would be the test subject instead.Gears of War: The Slab pg 188-189 Bakos agreed to his compromise, and after injecting him with Lambency, she passed off his test results as coming from Alva to prevent Prescott from learning what they were doing. Dr. Nevil Estrom was also brought into the loop regarding the tests after he questioned Adam about Alva.Gears of War: The Slab pg 204-205 Researching Lambency In Bloom of 12 A.E., Bakos began getting some unexpected results from the mice she had infected with Lambency. Their fertility rates dropped significantly, producing smaller litters with thirty percent of the offspring being sterile. She connected this data to the declining size of families on Sera even before the Locust War had started and deduced that low levels of Lambency infection was responsible.Gears of War: The Slab pg 271-272 Over the next year, Bakos and Adam clashed often over how to proceed on their research due to her resentment of a physicist having co-lead on the project and having neglected to inform anyone about Lambency for more than a decade. She often rejected his ideas for being made without solid foundations of proof, although she did accept some of his suggestions. Bakos tormented and humiliated Adam by requesting sperm samples from him to continue studying decreased fertility rates, making notes in her requests to him about how it might be of little use since Adam was getting old.Gears of War: The Slab pg 312-313 In Gale of 13 A.E., Bakos was working in the lab when she saw COG Intelligence Agency Agent Louise Settile enter Adam's office. When Adam arrived with Nevil, she informed him he had a visitor, but did not tell him who it was.Gears of War: The Slab pg 317 By Reap, Bakos and Adam had begun studying two different approaches to destroying Lambency. Bakos focused on a pharmaceutical method, while Adam looked for a physical means of destroying the Lambent cells.Gears of War: The Slab pg 347-348 Deception Discovered In Gale of 14 A.E., Bakos supervised Adam as he took a new blood sample from himself. She criticized his technique and remarked that she was amazed he had not given himself an air embolism when injecting himself with the pathogen or withdrawing blood. Adam told her to imagine he was a large charmless rat, and asked if he was infected yet. Bakos informed him that he was, and the pathogen appeared to be dormant within him. She noted that nobody else had shown signs of infection, indicating that it was not being spread by touch or the air, and concluded that it had to be done through ingestion or transfer of bodily fluids. Bakos did discover that everyone had low levels of Imulstion contamination, but believed it was within normal levels for an urban population. After filing the results, Bakos disposed of her gloves and mask while Adam asked if she thought he was mad. She told him she had stopped trying to figure him out, but thought he did take so much responsibility on himself that it bordered on messianism. Adam countered he was just doing what he had to in order to end the war and was prepared to die to do so, causing Bakos to apologize and tell him that he was after martyrdom instead. He angrily demanded to know if his tissues were of any use to her, and after she admitted they were, he told her to stop criticizing and insulting him. Bakos gave him a smug smirk and gathered the samples before leaving the office.Gears of War: The Slab pg 378-380 Later that day, Bakos was summoned to meet with Adam and Settile, and they met with Nevil and Cpt. Paul Dury in one of the biolabs. Settile had Bakos set up a sample of Lambency and Lambent-contaminated blood for her to examine, and Bakos showed her a regular blood sample to compare it to, pointing the contamination indicators in the infected blood. Settile then asked to be shown samples of Adam and Alva's blood, but demanded that Bakos draw the blood from Adam in front of her. As Bakos prepared to take a sample, Settile stopped her and did it herself, explaining she had a background in narcotics and knew how to draw blood. She then had Bakos prepare a slide with Adam's blood, which clearly showed Lambent infection. Adam admitted they had been testing it on himself instead of Alva, and Settile led everyone to a room where Alva was being kept. Bakos watched as Settile executed Alva with a bullet to the head, unable to look away or stop swallowing hard. Settile admonished them all for lying, and explained that they needed to work together and trust each other absolutely if they were going to be able to save Sera from the Lambent, and that further deceptions would not be tolerated.Gears of War: The Slab pg 402-407 Appearances * The Slab References Category:Civilians Category:COG Category:Females Category:Scientist